


ring, ring

by thethrillof



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-17 23:05:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7289641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thethrillof/pseuds/thethrillof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They text him three important words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ring, ring

_Don’t give up_ , Frisk texts him.

After the first day under the sun. After the first night where put his hands in his pockets and tilted his skull back and saw _stars_.

He sent back a joke and deleted it. He thinks. Probably.

Sans doesn’t quite remember the first few times, because they keep sending it. After their first meeting, flanked by Asgore and Toriel, waving to the cameras on TV, he even gets to see them fiddling with their cell phone before the image cuts to a shot of the king.

_Don’t give up._

It seems like only a few days, but suddenly Frisk is taller, has a birthday bash. He buys them a hoodie like his, but with stripes. They love it and put it on, even though the house is probably too warm.

Before he leaves they pull him into a hug, and they whisper _don’t give up_ against his shoulder, and they leave to talk to that one monster kid before he can answer.

He gets a job. Two jobs, then three. Nothing impossible, and he has enough to support himself and his brother, who’s training to be some kind of night guard. He’s having the time of his life, and Sans can’t temper the warmth that suffuses his cavernous chest with warnings all the time. Papyrus deserves this. 

Happiness. Sans can't say it's worse than apathy–-but it doesn’t stop the fear.

_Don’t give up_ , he sees, dozens of texts he hadn’t realized he’d been saving. Every time something, good or bad, happens to them. (And that’s often. Every few days, it seems, there are breakthroughs with treaties-–but then followed up with yet another a trembling assassination attempt–-) 

Every time something happens to him.  Every time something happens to Papyrus. _Don’t give up._  

It takes a year before he answers again, properly.

_Don’t give up._

**_i won’t, kid._ **

 


End file.
